The present invention relates to an automatic pick-up system for propellant charge modules stored in a magazine.
Generally speaking, when a piece of ammunition fired from an artillery cannon is composed by a projectile and a propellant charge introduced successively into the gun chamber, the charge is formed of a combustible envelope of a substantially constant length. This envelope can enclose a number of propellant powder bags which varies according to the amount of powder required to fire the projectile.
Nowadays, there is a tendency to replace this single envelope of a substantially constant length by several modules of substantially the same bulk each containing a predetermined quantity of propellant powder and whose number varies according to the amount of powder required to fire the projectile.
This results in a propellant charge of variable length.
It is known to compartment the internal volume of magazine so as to store several superimposed rows of modules in each compartment, such rows containing n modules axially aligned along the axis of the row, and to use pick-up means carried by a mobile bracket to automatically pick up inside the magazine any or all of the modules of a same row of a compartment and transfer them to a loading system which must then be able to manage a variable number of modules to be taken to the gun chamber in order to fire a projectile.
According to Patent FR-A-2,743,412 the means to pick up a module are formed by a suction cup associated with a venturi effect vacuum generator. The disadvantage of such an automatic pick-up device by partial vacuum lies in that it requires a very reliable safety system to be installed to avoid the risk of leaks which can lead to a module being dropped.
Pick-up means are also known which are formed by pincers having two hinged jaws. This solution, however, requires the manufacture of a magazine whose walls are sufficiently well spaced from one another to allow the pincers to open. This results in an excessively bulky magazine and/or a reduced storage capacity for a given magazine bulk.